


To Call A Home

by kyoshi_lesbians



Series: Foggy Swamp Air Nomads [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Air Nomads (Avatar), Gen, Swamp POV, foggy swamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:21:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29221626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyoshi_lesbians/pseuds/kyoshi_lesbians
Summary: The first of them to make the journey to the Tree were still nursing burns. They carried with them their names, the markings on their skin, and each other −   the youngest of them cradled on their backs, the oldest among them leaning on the most sturdy.The Tree recognized them. Survivors from the day when that blister of pain ripped through the balance of the Earth down to the Roots. The Day of Red Sky.*Air Nomads find refuge in the Foggy Swamp after Sozin's comet.
Series: Foggy Swamp Air Nomads [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2145510
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	To Call A Home

The first of them to make the journey to the Tree were still nursing burns. They carried with them their names, the markings on their skin, and each other − the youngest of them cradled on their backs, the oldest among them leaning on the most sturdy. 

The Tree recognized them. Survivors from the day when that blister of pain ripped through the balance of the Earth down to the Roots. The Day of Red Sky.

The Tree had no choice but to breathe in the smoke from fires miles away, carrying with it the smell of terror. Pain. On that day, the Roots of the Tree had trembled with the vibrations of what could only be screams. 

The Tree felt everything living and growing together. 

It had never before felt that magnitude of death. 

The peoples' footfalls were light. Cranes called to them with something like recognition, before ruffling their feathers and taking flight. Breezes obeyed the peoples' touch the same way water followed the direction of the Water Dwellers who could push-and-pull the river water like ocean tides.

The Air Shapers found the Water Movers. When bright water-gilded hands caressed scarred red bodies, the taste of burnt flesh didn’t vanish from the winds, but the smell waned. 

The Tree cradled the people in its arms the best it could. Outside its reach, the world grew sick. The Roots trembled with a constant ache that had not abated since the Day of Red Sky.

The Tree watched the Air Shapers learn to live in this new place. They harvested wild grain, then learned to make the stems of that plant grow thick and ate those too. They made herbs into teas, discovered which aliments could be alleviated by which plants, and how to help those plants thrive. They took care for hummingbird-bees and gathered mushroom-figs, and eventually, the air shapers left the banks of river lanes for high tree branches. They settled into the canopy as gently as new leaves.

Many seasons passed before the Air Shapers entered the Tree's core for the first time. On the threshold of that sacred place, they paused. They asked for permission. The Tree granted it. 

A cycle of seasons later, they asked the Tree for shelter there. An undercurrent of apology ran through the request. _You've given so much already._

The Tree sent a thrum of energy to the Air Shapers that, in the physical world, looked sunlight golden and buzzed like lightning. The wisest among them understood this answer. _You have always given back._

For people, there are many definitions of a home - an alchemy of family and care and love and land. For the Tree it was not so different. These caring people were here in its arms, and the Tree loved them.

And so the survivors from the Temples in the Sky, those who had built a life in the Swamp, began to build a home in the heart of the Tree. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I am [kyoshi-lesbians](https://www.kyoshi-lesbians.tumblr.com) on tumblr as well


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